


Comparing Notes

by Android_And_Ale



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: All banter no plot, Barry deserves to have people screw with his head after he screwed with the timeline, Barry is legitimately confused about what is real and what is unprovable bullshit, Barry is not forgiven for getting Dante killed, Breaking into Big Belly Burger's HQ, But they're not fessing up to who, Cisco the Hair Model, Early season 3, Fluff, Harry and Cisco compare notes on their pre-vs-post Flashpoint worlds, Harry singing Karaoke, Jesse and Caitlin play matchmaker, M/M, Nerdtacular science boys, One of them banged a were-octopus, Puffy McFluffykins, The Trickster's Lollipop Bombs, This is where one-upsmanship gets you, Trivia night with your designated NSA monitor, harrisco, post-flashpoint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 12:15:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13763952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Android_And_Ale/pseuds/Android_And_Ale
Summary: “I’m not buying it, Harry. You’re just screwing with me,” said Cisco.Harry pulled the slightly chewed pencil out of his mouth. “Believe me, Ramon. You’d know if I was screwing you.”“Screwing with me, Harry! When you say it like that it sounds dirty.” Cisco braced his fists on his hips, staring Harry down from across the workshop.Harry shrugged. “Grammar’s different on my Earth.”“I call bullshit. Flashpoint didn’t change things that much.”Harry pushed the intercom. “Allen. Snow. Meet us in the Cortex. It’s time to compare notes.”





	Comparing Notes

 

“I’m not buying it, Harry. You’re just screwing with me,” said Cisco.

Harry pulled the slightly chewed pencil out of his mouth. “Believe me, Ramon. You’d know if I was screwing you.”

“Screwing _with_ me, Harry! When you say it like that it sounds dirty.” Cisco braced his fists on his hips, staring Harry down from across the workshop.

Harry shrugged. “Grammar’s different on my Earth.”

“I call bullshit. Flashpoint didn’t change things _that_ much.”

Harry pushed the intercom. “Allen. Snow. Meet us in the Cortex. It’s time to compare notes.”

He opened a drawer to pull out sketchbooks and pens. It was full of twizzlers and lollipops. “This was a supply drawer, Ramon.”

Cisco grabbed one of his favorite imported lemongrass and lime lollipops. “It still is.” He also snatched half a dozen sketchbooks and pens from one of the metal drawers on a nearby inflammable industrial shelf.

Harry glared. “That’s where I kept my soldering irons.” He could swear Cisco smirked before heading to the Cortex.

Barry was already waiting. He smiled up at the pair, hopeful and relieved. “I’m so glad you’re doing this.” His voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. “Everything here is so confusing.”

He tried to give Cisco a hug. Cisco flinched away, ducking behind a console as he pretended to perform a quick metahuman emergency check. He tossed Barry a pen and notebook before settling in at his familiar station.

“We’ll clear it up for you, Allen,” said Harry. Barry looked a little hurt when Harry didn’t give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Instead, Harry sat next to Cisco, sprawling his lanky body so there wasn’t room for Barry to pull up a chair. Barry’s lips tightened and he loped across the room to a solo desk.

The smell of popcorn preceded Caitlin and Jesse. Caitlin had an arm around the youngest speedster’s shoulders, whispering something sternly in her ear. Jesse’s cheeks flushed. She gave Caitlin a kiss on the cheek and nodded. “I’ve got it,” she whispered back.

Harry hoped they were talking about birth control.

Barry took a deep breath. “Okay, we’ve covered the big changes.” There was an awkward silence while no one said Dante’s name.

Harry cleared his throat. “The Speed Lab.” He held up a hand, ready to tick items off on his fingers.

“Cisco’s conditioner game,” said Jesse. “Seriously, it’s like your hair beat a boss level. It’s always looked good, but since we’ve been back? It’s amazing!”

Cisco twirled a curl around one finger, grinning at her through his blush.

“How are the shampoo commercials going, Ramon?” asked Harry.

Cisco laughed. When Harry’s expression didn’t change, Cisco’s laughs sputtered out. He leaned forward, elbows on the table, studying Harry’s poker face. “Wait, are you serious?”

“Before Barry changed the timeline, Felicity introduced you to a L’Oreal casting agent at the last Queen’s Choice Fundraising Gala,” said Jesse. She locked gazes with her father. After a silent moment of indecipherable Wells family communication, Harry silently nodded once.

“For real?” Cisco’s eyes were round with shock. Barry and Cisco looked to Caitlin. She shrugged, as surprised as the rest of them.

That was two. Harry held up a third finger. “Your Trickster stayed in prison.”

“What did he do in your timeline?” Cisco’s eyes narrowed.

“He poisoned your imported lollipops,” Harry replied.

“No!” Cisco stood up. “Not my lime and lemongrass ones!”

“We had to throw away all your candy,” said Harry. Caitlin made a sly ‘ok’ gesture with her hand. Cisco looked between the two, suspicious.

“When you sucked on the Trickster’s lollipops, the additives mixed with saliva slowly turned the whole concoction into glue in your mouth,” Harry continued. “You almost lost your tongue.”

Cisco pulled out his lolli and stared at it, accusingly. “Et tu, dulcis?”

“What happened?” asked Caitlin.

“I modified part of my medical field kit from the war. There’s a solvent we use to dissolve emergency wound glue once we get soldiers to a real surgeon,” said Harry. “We were able to seperate Ramon’s tongue from his soft palate and remove the bomb without damage.”

“Bomb?” Cisco whispered. He looked at his lolli like it personally betrayed him.

“Ramon couldn’t speak a word,” said Harry. “It was the best four hours of my life.”

“I’m right over here, dad,” said Jesse. “Good to know my birth, first words, and college graduation are no big deal compared to spending four hours inside Cisco’s mouth.”

Cisco choked a little. Jesse looked innocently at Caitlin, who failed to suppress her own smile.

He ran a hand through his long, black waves, rallying as he pretended he hadn’t heard Jesse. “So was this before or after we fought The Grasshopper?” asked Cisco.

Barry and Caitlin exchanged confused glances. Jesse stared intently into the popcorn bowl.

“We fought a mechanical insect swarm after you offended Bree Larvin’s roommate,” said Harry.

Cisco crossed his arms, eyes narrowing into commas as he stared Harry down. “Are you telling me you don’t remember fighting The Grasshopper? The first time he grabbed me from behind I thought you were giving me a super weird hug.”

Harry’s glasses slipped to the end of his nose. He stared at Cisco over the rims. “My arms aren’t that long Ramon.”

“They are from down here.” Cisco flattened his palm over his head, then jutted his his arm straight forward in an awkward, sideways karate chop that hit Harry in the collarbones.

Harry shrugged. “Well, according to your drunken Karaoke, you do come from the land down under.”

“Shut your face, Harry!” Cisco surged to his feet so fast his chair spun back over three feet. “We did NOT go to Karaoke in the other timeline?”

“These Hips Don’t Lie, Ramon.”

Cisco paced around their shared cortex station. “Do you remember breaching into Big Belly Burger’s HQ?” Cisco leaned against the back of the console, staring Harry in the eye.

Harry leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk as he calmly met Cisco’s defiant gaze. “To protest their ridiculous new fries.”

Caitlin and Barry looked to Jesse for confirmation. She stuffed her mouth with a fist full of popcorn and stared straight ahead.

“No one needs their fries rolled in bland white people taco seasoning.” Cisco searched Harry’s poker face for any sign of a tell.

“Making it rain Sriracha ketchup from the sprinkler systems was a little much,” said Harry.

“They needed to know their customers would go straight up Red Wedding on them if they didn’t bring back the original fries.”

Harry leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Speaking of Red Wedding, I thought you were going to drown in your own blood when you nearly cut your thumb off. Safety first when using power tools, Ramon.”

“Okay, I know that really happened,” Barry whispered to Caitlin. “He’s got the scar and everything.”

Between them, Jesse took another bite of popcorn, neither confirming nor denying.

“I was stoned off my ass on painkillers after they sewed it back on,” Cisco replied. He rubbed the twisted brown scar.

Harry ran a hand through his floof of brown curls. “You named my hair Puffy McFluffykins and demanded I purr like a cat when you pet it.”

Jesse spat her Moxie soda on the table. Caitlin put a single finger over her lips, making hard eye contact with Jesse. Barry continued to dutifully take notes while Caitlin passed Jesse a napkin.

“Then you hooked up with Nautica while she was in human form,” said Harry.

Cisco crossed his arms. “In my timeline you hooked up with Nautica while she was an octopus.”  

They stared into one another’s eyes, each daring the other to contradict him.

“Who’s Nautica?” asked Barry.

Caitlin rolled her eyes. “The were-octopus who works at Mercury Labs. Absolute genius at tech waterproofing. She’s roommates with Bree Larvin.”

“Wait. The Bee Lady?” Barry looked shocked. “I thought she was locked up in Iron Heights?”

“Larvin’s not a meta,” said Cisco. “She makes robot bees. She’s not made out of bees.”

“That would be impressive,” added Harry.

“Try terrifying! Ain’t nobody got time for bees.” Cisco paced a few steps, unconsciously running one hand through his hair and the other over his body as though shooing away invisible insects.

“I was impressed with how you handled the blackmail Sex Hologram Larvin made with the bee droids she snuck into Nautica’s room.” He turned to Caitlin. “Do we still have that on file?”

Caitlin was spared from answering by Barry holding up his hands. “No! I’m good! I don’t need to see either of you hook up with a were-octopus!” Caitlin and Jesse giggled.

“Wednesday night trivia,” said Cisco, changing the subject.

Harry smiled. “It’s Hasan’s turn to buy the chicken wings.”

“Ooh! Boys! I’ve got Wednesday off this week,” said Caitlin.

“Say it into the monitor,” said Cisco and Harry, in sync. Harry, Jesse, and Caitlin laughed at the shared joke. Barry looked confused.

“Hasan is the NSA agent monitoring STAR Labs,” Jesse explained. “Since the, er, incident, they’re all on a weekly trivia team together.”

“So that one’s real?” asked Barry.

Caitlin subtly elbowed Jesse. Jesse stared into the popcorn bowl. “Hey, we were literally on a parallel Earth when you changed the timeline. We come back and suddenly Wally’s a speedster and you’ve got a whole new room in the building and…” she let Dante’s name go unspoken. “How am I supposed to know what real even means anymore?”

Caitlin wrapped an arm around Jesse’s shoulder for a sideways hug. As she pulled her tight, she whispered, “Good dodge.”

“I miss my quilt,” said Harry.

All eyes turned to him. “Uh, if it’s too cold down there we can get you a space heater,” said Cisco.

Jesse handed Caitlin the popcorn. She walked behind her dad’s chair and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, gently kissing his floof. He reached up to squeeze her forearm, eyes closed for a moment as he soaked in the comfort.

“Was it a family heirloom?” asked Caitlin.

Cisco chewed his bottom lip. His entire body cringed away from Barry. Please, he thought, don’t let it be something Tess made him.

“It could’ve turned into one,” Jesse said softly. Harry shook his head, shooting her a mild look of disapproval as he pulled away. Jesse pulled out her phone and scrolled through the photos, then handed it over to Cisco.

In the picture, Cisco and Harry mugged for the camera while holding up a queen sized quilt that dwarfed his twin cot in the background. The soft, knit quilt top was pieced together from dozens of old theme t-shirts Cisco hadn’t worn since before the particle accelerator explosion. The backing was literally shirt backs. Curling up in it on that tiny bed would be like being wrapped tight in a soft, nerdy hug. Caitlin and Barry peered over Cisco’s shoulders. They looked between the two men, then at one another, eyes wide.

“You said, and I quote, my dank basement cell needed a personal touch. And that you needed to clear out some closet space.” His poker face cracked a little at the edges, revealing a hint of regret. “But I understand why you didn't make it in this timeline.”

Cisco looked genuinely curious.

“Grief counseling is a better use of your time,” said Harry. If someone had given Barry proper grief counseling after his mother died they might not be in this mess at all.

Harry turned off the phone and handed it back to Jesse. She kissed his forehead and slid it back into her pocket. He sighed. “After you gave it to me I finally agreed to go on your idiotic Hobbit walking tour in New Zealand.”

“You did not!” Cisco’s mouth gaped. He glared around the room. Caitlin and Barry guiltily studied the ceiling. “For real? Guys?” Cisco shoved his hands into his pockets as he pouted. “I’ve been trying to get you guys to go on the Hobbit tour since I learned how to breach! We don’t even need hotel rooms! I can bring everybody back home to sleep in their own beds every night!”

“You made dad camp there over the weekend,” said Jesse.

“I hate camping.” Cisco looked surprised.

“Not with dad,” Jesse snickered.

She picked up Barry’s notebook. It was a mess of out of context quotes and question marks. There were three check marks on it, one of them circled. She handed it back to him. “You should also add that you caught them making out in Cisco’s workshop.”

Harry and Cisco turned as one, staring at her in shock.

“You were so cute!” Caitlin chimed in. “You thought we’d all be scandalized, but you were too adorable.”

“Like a pair of baby otters!” Jesse grinned at Caitlin. “I’m so glad that happened in both timelines!”

Jesse turned her smile on her dad, daring him to contradict her. Caitlin squeezed her shoulder, beaming conspiratorially at Harry and Cisco.

“I’m so confused,” said Barry. He flipped through the notes. Karaoke. Lollipop glue bombs. A were-octopus? “Is any of this true?”

“It _all_ is,” said Caitlin. Her grin broadened, wickedly daring Harry or Cisco to contradict her. “Right, boys?”

Cisco swallowed hard. There was no backing down now. “Every. Word.” His hand fumbled for Harry’s. To his surprise, Harry let him take it, even squeezing once in gentle reassurance.

Barry looked unconvinced. “Mazel tov?”

“Go ahead and kiss, boys,” said Caitlin. “You don’t have to hide anything around us.” Her smile broadened, bordering on predatory.

“You both know you already have my approval,” Jesse chimed in. “Barry’s the only one here who thinks you two aren’t Officially A Thing.”

“This is weird.” Barry looked between the two men. They seemed more unified and determined than romantic. “You guys think this is weird, too, right?”

“No weirder than The Grasshopper.” Caitlin stared hard at Cisco.

“Or making it rain Sriracha Ketchup.” Jesse was equally intent on her father.

Harry rolled his eyes. He huffed out a single breath, shaking his head faintly. “Ramon.”

Cisco looked up. Harry cupped his cheek. They locked eyes, grumpily determined to see this through. Harry leaned down and gently pressed a chaste kiss onto Cisco’s plush lips.

Cisco looked annoyed by the unconvincing gesture. He pushed up into Harry’s kiss, mouth open, spearing his tongue between Harry’s lips. Harry stiffened momentarily, then relaxed into the softness of Cisco’s mouth, shyly darting his tongue out to meet Cisco’s before breathlessly pulling away. He brushed a light kiss on Cisco’s forehead. Cisco’s cheeks flushed. A long moment passed before they remembered they weren’t alone. Harry shuffled half a step away, but didn’t let go of Cisco’s hand. Cisco smiled and squeezed.

“That was a weird kiss.” Barry turned to Caitlin and Jesse. “Tell me that seemed weird to you, too.”

“Have you met them?” Caitlin muttered.

“It was perfect.” Jesse sounded altogether too proud of herself.

“Well, er, thanks for clearing things up?” Barry stared down at his notebook. “What time is trivia on Wednesday?”

“No,” said Cisco.

“We already have a full team of six.” Caitlin softened the rejection. Cisco wasn’t ready to socialize with Barry yet, and she wasn’t going to let Barry push him. What Cisco needed most right now was a normal social life outside of work and grief counseling.

“Alright. Well. It looks like I’ve got some exciting reports to catch up on.”  Barry looked at Harry and Cisco one more time, his face wrinkled in disbelief. “A were-octopus?” They shrugged. He noticed they were still holding hands. Maybe it wasn’t all bullshit.

Caitlin pulled out her phone. “Sorry, boys. I’ve got to take this.” She wandered over to her usual desk, frowning at her phone before tapping out a text.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow?” Barry looked like he wanted to give Cisco a hug, or at least a high five before he left. Harry wrapped a protective arm around Cisco’s shoulders. Barry sighed and disappeared in a burst of lightning and wind.

Jesse’s cellphone trilled. She pulled it out and read Caitlin’s message. “We’ll catch you later, dad! Love you, too, step-DILF!” she blew them both kisses. “Caitlin, Wally, and I are getting makeovers at Sephora before we go out. Don’t wait up!”

“Really?” Cisco took a step towards them. “Mind if I?”

“Nope!” Jesse looped her arm in Caitlin’s and they hurried out of the cortex, leaving Harry and Cisco alone.

“You should’ve told them I was taking you tampon shopping.” Caitlin’s voice echoed from the hallway.

“Trust me, you don’t want to get into an Earth-1 vs Earth-2 feminine hygiene comparison with my dad. He means well, but…” their voices trailed off.

Harry and Cisco were left standing alone in the cortex, still holding hands. Cisco chewed his lower lip, furtively glancing at their entwined fingers. “So. Seems like we’ve got the place to ourselves,” he said slowly. “What should we do now?”

“I think we’re going to be up all night writing incident reports for Barry Allen,” said Harry.

Cisco laughed. He leaned his head against Harry’s shoulder. “Sriracha ketchup in the sprinklers?”

Harry laughed with him. “Live action hentai?”

Cisco looked up. “Oh, that really happened.”

Harry met his gaze, eyes narrowing. “To you.”

They stared at one another, smirking hard, cheerful gazes daring the other to back down first.

“And what about this?” Cisco squeezed his hand.

Harry swallowed hard. He stiffly leaned down like he might kiss Cisco again, then turned his head to nuzzle a cheek against Cisco’s ear. His eyes closed, absorbing the warmth of Cisco’s hand in his, face against his cheek, the smell of his shampoo. “Feels real from where I’m standing.”

Cisco leaned into his touch. So many things had felt subtly wrong about his life since Barry revealed he’d changed the timeline. Again. This was the first thing in too long that felt right. He slid a hand along Harry’s jaw, idly stroking the pad of his thumb across his stubble.

Harry turned his head to kiss him again. Instead of a chaste brush this kiss was slow, exploratory. Cisco melted against the welcome warmth of Harry’s tongue. He smelled like solder and machine oil and that annoying 3 in 1 shampoo/conditioner/body wash Cisco kept “accidentally” throwing away. It all mingled into unmistakable Harry.  

When they finally pulled away they were breathless, beaming. Harry tucked a lock of hair behind Cisco’s ear, then twirled his finger in the long curl it so it came loose again.

Cisco gently stroked Harry’s dimples. “When we’re done with those reports, I’m making you a new quilt.”

  



End file.
